Coming off the team’s worst performance of the season vs. the Indiana Pacers on November 3, the Detroit Pistons got set for a huge six-game West Coast road trip. Going in, most fans and media-types agreed that it would be a solid barometer for where the team was truly at so far. Sure, the wins against Atlanta, Utah, and Chicago were impressive, but the performance and effort against the Pacers invited some skepticism, and rightfully so.
Halfway through the trip now, the Pistons have passed, and with flying colors. The best overall performance was against Phoenix, as the Pistons fell down 7-1 early, but went on a 9-0 run from there and never once trailed again. The major theatrics were provided in the game at Portland, as the Pistons turned in one of their best comebacks and wins in recent memory, highlighted by Reggie Jackson‘s 26-point 4th quarter , leading to a 40-point performance. And oh yeah, Andre Drummond only put up 29 points and 27 rebounds on his way to winning back to back Eastern Conference Player of the Week honors, the first to do so in the history of a franchise that’s had its share of great players.
The following game against Golden State was met with tons of anticipation and hype, certainly the most for a Pistons regular season game in a very long time. Ultimately, the Warriors were simply just too good as they moved to 8-0 on the season and won their 23rd regular season game in a row at Oracle Arena, but there were a ton of positives to take away from the game if you’re a Pistons fan.
Let’s start with Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Stan Van Gundy elected to go with him on Stephen Curry for the most of the night as expected, and the result was Curry putting up a season-low 22 points. KCP was able to use his length and lateral quickness to make life extremely tough on Curry, who had to work extremely hard all night to get even only the small amount of space that’s required for him to make shots at an efficient rate.
Offensively, KCP was solid, going 6-for-12, but just 1-for-4 from distance. He’s been good from inside the arc so far this season and is also showing more of an ability to slash, but his current 31% from three rate will need to improve for the Pistons to get the most out of what they’re trying to do offensively. Outside of the low percentage from three, there is literally nothing to complain about with KC3 (or KCD, whichever works), to the extent of which he’s silenced the rabid Michigan fans who wanted Trey Burke so badly in the 2013 Draft.
(To be fair, Burke’s own play has played a huge part in that.)
Throughout the fiery start, one of the lone negatives for the Pistons has been the lack of production from highly touted rookie Stanley Johnson. He has rebounded well and shown how much of a presence he can be inside, even at just 19 years old. However, through the first two games of the West Coast swing, the low offensive output continued as Stanley put up just eight points in 42 minutes of play. In the most anticipated game of the season, though, Stanley rose to the occasion and put up 20 points.
Admittedly, seven of those points came in garbage time, but for the first time this season, he looked comfortable on the offensive side of the ball for the entirety of a game. Instead of looking tentative like he has for much of the season, he was looking to create offensively and get to the basket, which is what the bench unit is certainly going to need if they want any shot of removing their current reputation as potentially being the sole reason the Pistons might once again fall short of the postseason.
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The wins in Phoenix and Portland were both quality, and it left the Pistons in the position of essentially playing with house money in their game at Golden State. They came up short, but kept pace with the defending champs throughout most of the game and also left no doubts about their effort. Golden State is simply at a different level right now, while the Pistons are still trying to cement themselves into the second tier of the NBA hierarchy.
There are three games left on the road trip, with Sacramento first up on Wednesday night, then back to back games at the Staples Center, with another opportunity for a signature win against the Clippers on Saturday afternoon and then a matchup against the hapless Lakers on Sunday night. With the Kings currently a mess and the Lakers still one of the worst teams in basketball, 2-1 is more than doable and would give the Pistons an impressive 4-2 record on this West Coast swing.
Even the great Pistons teams of the 2000’s had their struggles when venturing out West, so rounding out this trip at 4-2 would possibly be an indicator that the ’15-16 squad may truly have taken that next step into Eastern Conference relevance.
Nobody’s expecting them to beat Blake Griffin and the Clippers, but you have to win the games that you’re supposed to if you want to be taken seriously, and the match-ups against the Kings and Lakers are both prime examples of that.